While the video is pretty fantastic in a way that I don’t understand, the song is a miss. It sounds like he’s either saying “rockster” or “lobster.” I like “rockster” because it sounds like a hipster rockstar, and given the styling it seems appropriate. Noh’s laughable attempt to say the word “rockstar,” which is in the title of the song and in the lyrics no less than 589 times, is probably the only redeeming point. He spells his name almost as much as he says, or at least tries to say, “I wanna be a rockstar,” and that’s a lot. It doesn’t help that the lyrics are short and repetitive. Even then, there’s no guarantee of success because the song isn’t the most ear-friendly. This is one of those songs you have to repeat and brainwash yourself into liking. Even though it looks like they just had a small budget, it all goes with the concept so it works.īut the song is incredibly grating with all of the autotune. Actually, the whole music video is strange, and I don’t fully understand most of it. There’s a weird moment where Noh stands in bamboo on a rock over a shot of The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and while it’s obvious that it’s a reference to something Japanese, I’m honestly not sure to what. After losing for what seems to be the hundredth time, Noh takes an angry nap, and in his dream he enters the video game, where he turns into Icon, the guitar-wielding rockstar character from the video game, with his sidekicks Monster the “drum masta” and Disco, whose job is apparently to “spin that s***.”Ĭomplete with 8-bit graphics and 80s color palette, the music video is definitely a video game brought to life, though much trippier than any video game I’ve played. Noh is a stereotypical hermit-like, sweats-donning gamer, and what does he play? None other than a game about being a rockstar. The concept of the music video suits the sound perfectly. No, despite lyrics declaring that he “want to be a rockstar,” this is another on the electronic, autotuned bandwagon. Going by the moniker Icon this time, Noh released his first single “Rockstar” at the beginning of July, and, despite the name, it is not a rock song. He proved his dedication to his craft as an actor when he joined the cast of Midas and lost nearly 10 kilograms (about 20 pounds) for his role.īut it seems that music is Noh’s passion as he is back at it, solo this time.

After supporting roles in Pasta and My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, he landed his first leading role in drama special Rock, Rock, Rock. Then, Noh made a career switch and began to pursue acting. In 2006, just over two years after the rock band’s debut, Rose (his stage name at the time) made his departure from the group. Noh Min-woo may have started out as the drummer in The TRAX - with awesome blond Visual Kei-esque hair to boot - but he didn’t stay long.

No min woo